HR: 11:25h
AN: V52C-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Norris Geyser Basin: An example of Yellowstone National Park's Effort to Monitor Geothermal Resources Using Remote Sensing
AU: * Jaworowski, C
EM: cheryl_jaworowski@nps.gov
AF: Yellowstone Center For Resources, Building 27, Yellowstone NP, Wy 82190, United States
AU: Heasler, H P
EM: henry_heasler@nps.gov
AF: Yellowstone Center For Resources, Building 27, Yellowstone NP, Wy 82190, United States
AU: Rodriguez, J
EM: josh@ntsg.umt.edu
AF: National Center For Landscape Fire Analysis, Science Complex 441, College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, Mt 59812, United States
AU: Hardy, C C
EM: chardy01@fs.fed.us
AF: Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory Program, 5775 US Highway 10, Missoula, Mt 59808, United States
AU: Seielstad, C
EM: carl@ntsg.umt.edu
AF: National Center For Landscape Fire Analysis, Science Complex 441, College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, Mt 59812, United States
AU: Queen, L P
EM: lpqueen@ntsg.umt.edu
AF: National Center For Landscape Fire Analysis, Science Complex 441, College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, Mt 59812, United States
AB: Protection of Yellowstone's unique geothermal resources is the main focus of Yellowstone National Park's effort to map and scientifically monitor heat emitted from selected hydrothermal areas and the entire 2.2 million acres of Yellowstone National Park. In 2005, Yellowstone National Park geologists began collaborations with researchers from the University of Montana's National Center For Landscape Fire Analysis(UM-NCLFA), Utah State University's Remote Sensing Services Laboratory, Montana State University and the USDA Fire Sciences Lab to accomplish this task. A goal of the remote sensing component of Yellowstone's Geothermal Monitoring Plan is the estimation of radiant heat flux for Norris Geyser Basin, the Upper Geyser Basin, Midway Geyser Basin, the Lower Geyser Basin, the Mud Volcano area, Mammoth Hot Springs, Hot Spring Basin, the Sour Creek resurgent dome and the entire Park. Norris Geyser Basin is an example of a fracture-controlled hydrothermal basin. The nine hydrothermal sub- basins that compose Norris Geyser Basin include: Porcelain Basin, Steamboat-Echinus, Gray Lakes-Porkchop, the Gap, the West Gap, Reservoir-Upper Tantalus Creek, Lower Tantalus Creek, One Hundred Spring Plain, and Sulfur Dust. Two orthogonal sets of fractures (northeast and northwest; north-south and east-west) direct the flow of heat and water through the otherwise impermeable Lava Creek B tuff within these sub-basins. Airborne mid- infrared (3-5 micron) imagery acquired at night clearly shows the flow of heat and water along these fracture trends. These major fracture sets also partition Norris Geyser Basin into numerous blocks, potentially allowing independent movements among blocks and hydrothermal sub-basins. We estimated radiant heat flux for the Norris Geyser Basin using airborne mid-infrared (3-5 micron) daytime imagery acquired by a thermal imagery contractor on 9 October 2002 and daytime imagery acquired with a different sensor but similar mid-infrared bandpass on 12 October 2005. Because of geolocation issues between the two airborne datasets, UM-NCLFA researchers used "grid-based", basin-wide (3.2 km²) and hydrothermal sub-basin approaches for estimating radiant heat flux. In all hydrothermal sub-basins, the mean radiant heat flux was 3-10% greater in October 2002 than in October 2005 with basin-wide change from 2.1 x 10⁹ W/m² to 1.9 x 10⁹ W/m².
DE: 1830 Groundwater/surface water interaction
DE: 8010 Fractures and faults
DE: 8419 Volcano monitoring (7280)
DE: 8424 Hydrothermal systems (0450, 1034, 3017, 3616, 4832, 8135)
DE: 8485 Remote sensing of volcanoes
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting